Java 24 contains 24 new features – more than any Java release since 2018. These six will matter the most to Java developers and Java shops in the near term.

Developers should download the JDK package (Java Development Kit) and non-developers should get the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) package. You don't need both.

This latest version of Java, due to arrive as a production release on September 16, has 18 features. JDK 25 comes on the heels of JDK 24, a six-month-support release that arrived March 18.